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Question about D-Day markings


pepto

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I've been looking for resources on P-51 markings, specifically during D-Day, even more specifically about invasion stripes. Personally I love the look of the black and white stripes both on the bottom and top of the wing, take Crazy Horse (one of my favorites) for example

58d3fca9e376022b69e10d550a814ccf.jpg

The same can be seen on other Stangs like Quicksilver, but I never see them in actual historical pictures, more commonly I see the black and white stripes on the bottom of the wing and a single black stripe on the top, as shown here

p-51D.jpg

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,

2007001326_P-51D-5LeonardKyleCarson.jpg.de099330c2f902003bf86045ac933d8c.jpg

F-15E | F-14A/B

P-51D | P-47D | Mosquito FB Mk VI |Spitfire | Fw 190D | Fw 190A | Bf 109K |  WWII Assets Pack

Normandy 2 | The Channel | Sinai | Syria | PG | NTTR | South Atlantic 

F/A-18 | F-86 | F-16C | A-10C | FC-3 | CA | SC |

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Full D-Day stripes lasted for a fairly short period; I seem to recall that they were put on the night of June 5th (mostly by hand), and were modified to the lower belly and undersides of the wings in less than a month (probably once long-range escort missions resumed). Most of the fighters kept the underside stripes through the summer of 1944, although new issue aircraft may or may not have had them added as aircraft were lost through attrition. I believe that a general order to remove the stripes from surviving US aircraft came out around early September '44; I don't recall seeing any photos with them dated past that month.

 

The single stripes on the wings and tailplanes were originally used as a 'distemper' marking to help differentiate the Mustang from the Bf 109; originally, the vertical tail sported one too, but it was deemed unnecessary when it seemed to cause the P-51 to look rather more like a Messerschmidt when white stripes were applied on the OD over Neutral Grey aircraft. These markings continued to be used in the ETO until early 1945, by which time distemper markings were pretty much superfluous, given the gaudy paint jobs used by most USAAF fighter groups to identify themselves.

 

Dana Bell published some interesting volumes on USAAF marking in Europe in WWII through Squadron/Signal a few years back; they may be still available for those interested in creating authentic skins.

 

cheers

 

horseback

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]"Here's your new Mustangs boys--you can learn to fly 'em on the way to the target!" LTCOL Don Blakeslee, late February 1944

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